What do you do in your leisure time?

Terminator Genisys

I love going to the movies. The big screen, dark room, popcorn, and now the reclining chairs that I scoffed at when my theater was all “LOOK WHAT WE’RE GETTING!!” but are really just as great as they said. The movie theater is just one of my favorite places to be.

Of course, that theater high usually has me leaving with the impression that almost everything I see in there is great. Then I watch it again at home and no, no it’s really not. So I was a little bit worried when I pulled up Terminator Genisys for a second look last night (it’s free on Amazon Prime right now, fyi). I wrote a pretty glowing review of it last year, but I know a lot of people were really harsh on it, bashing the science and the acting and the trailer that gave away the plot twist, so I wondered if I would now see it through the lens of that negativity.

Turns out I still loved it.

I could rehash all the things I still thought worked really well (Emilia Clarke, despite the flak she caught from fans was still great, I thought), but it’s just as easy to direct you to the link above. Instead, I want to talk about the things I did see a little bit differently or didn’t mention from that first viewing.

It’s time to take a look at all the movies I watched in 2015, and for the first time since I started tracking, the numbers were so low I couldn’t justify not combining movies at the theater and movies streamed/on dvd. With that in mind, I’ve decided to do things a little differently this year, and make the bulk of this post Top 10 things I’m Glad I Watched in 2015.

This was an episode of Movie Fights that spoke to me. You can tell, because 90 percent of this post was done before I went to work Sunday afternoon. It features Terminators, superheroes and some great sequels, along with panelists Kristian Harloff, host of Schmoes Know Movie show; Mark Ellis, Schmoes co-host; and Nick Mundy of Screen Junkies. As always, I listen to the question, pause the video and type my answer, listen to the panel and pause to do follow-up thoughts. Then I pick a winner, which isn’t always me, but sometimes it is.

Look, I realize that I love going to the theater, and it’s something I only do a few times a year, so sometimes the theater-high gives me rose-tinted glasses. But I really think once that fades, Terminator Genisys will still shine as the first worthy sequel to the Terminator film franchise since 1991.

I’m keeping this review spoiler-free aside from what was shown in the previews. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen the preview for Genisys, I highly recommend you go see the movie before doing anything else.